“Making sure”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Galatians 1:18-2:10 (Forward, p. 87) CEV p. 1216

By now, most of us are probably quite familiar, quite accustomed, to congressional or parliamentary hearings. They seem to ‘happen’ almost every few days or months, simply to enquire into the full facts of some particular issue or action. In a sense, that is what we have here in today’s passage, only this time it wasn’t some legislative body that had convened it, but rather the apostle Paul. It turns out that he wants to be sure, to make sure, of two things, namely his message and his status as a messenger.

You see, he had a direct encounter the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, and, according to his own words, Jesus Himself gave him to message that he preaches. In verses 11 and 12, he says, “My friends, I want you to know that no one made up the message I preach. It wasn’t given or taught to me by some mere human. My message came directly from Jesus Christ when he appeared to me.” Now, whether this was on the day he first met up with Jesus on the Damascus Road, or during his sojourn in Arabia, or at another time, we simply don’t know. We do know that even from the words of Ananias (Acts 9:15) when he was instructed to pray for Paul that he had been sent to the Gentiles. But, as for the content of his preaching, his message, it seems to have come ‘full blown’, at least according to the timeline of the account in Acts 9 (Acts 9:19b-22). There doesn’t seem to be any person who instructed him or any time for this to have happened. My guess is that his sojourn in Arabia occurred between his conversation and his preaching in Damascus (see the above reference), but even with this, there doesn’t appear to be any human intermediary. Likewise, it seems plausible to me that it was during his time in Arabia that his theology and message took on a more polished and complete form, generally adding to or elaborating whatever the Lord had given him.

However, after some years of preaching his message, Paul wanted to make sure that he’s got it right and so he arranges a meeting, a congressional or parliamentary committee you might say, with Peter and the other leaders of the Jerusalem church. “I wanted to make sure that my work in the past and my future work would not be for nothing.” He wanted to be especially sure about this, given that certain Jewish Christians, often referred to as Judaizers, had snuck into the Christian Church and insisted

that Gentile believers submit to the whole rigamarole of Jewish rules and regulations. Paul was worried that this emphasis on rules, on performance, would pervert the necessary of grace alone and replace it with a kind of ‘works righteousness’. He was concerned that the simplicity and freedom of the gospel would thereby be compromised. And here, after consulting with the elders, he found that his message was ‘spot on’.

And, not only was his message affirmed, but so too was his own calling, his own place as an apostle. He was to go forth to the Gentles, just as Peter was called to go to his fellow Jews. And whether it was he, or Peter, the message was the same, namely God’s undeserved, unmerited kindness or grace towards all people.

My take-away from this is two-fold. Firstly, that the message does matter, and does matter in the sense that it proclaims that God loves and values and accepts all of us, regardless of our merit or our religiosity. We do not have to earn His love; rather, it is a free and undeserved gift from God.

And secondly, that our credentials, the recognition and blessing of the wider church, do matter as well. It is far better to be raised up by the church and recognized by the church than to be some ‘free-lancer’ who simply decides, willy nilly, to take this upon him or herself. There is something wonderfully freeing about having this official, outside recognition, and it is probably much safer as well.

Forward notes: “They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do” (verse 10).

Commemoration: Florence Li Tim-Oi, Priest, 1992

“Today, we celebrate the eve of Florence Li Tim-Oi’s ordination to the priesthood. Mother Florence was born in my hometown of Hong Kong. When I was twenty-four, I attended Evensong at St. John’s Cathedral in the Central neighborhood. Florence was the same age when she attended the ordination service at the cathedral of an English missionary, Lucy Vincent, as a deaconess. Florence answered God’s call and followed in Lucy’s footsteps to become the first Chinese deaconess in the church.

“Soon, World War II broke out, and thousands of refugees fled from Japanese occupation in China. In nearby Macau, Florence became a refugee congregation’s only pastor. Because of the conditions of war, the male priests and bishops were not able to cross the closing borders;

Florence was soon the only Anglican pastor in the Portuguese colony. Recognizing her ministry to this community in need, her bishop authorized her to celebrate Holy Eucharist and soon called her to make a treacherous journey into China to be ordained a priest.”

Moving Forward: “How can you support ordained women in your life?